Accountancy is one of the most competitive industries and there are estimated to be 78,000 accountancy firms in the UK. That’s a lot of competition for you to contend with, especially when the majority of these companies will be offering the same or similar accountancy services. That’s why it’s so important to stand out from the crowd. Digital marketing is one of the most effective ways of doing this and many accounting firms in the UK have already turned to it to help them achieve their business goals.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is particularly effective as it offers accountancy businesses an affordable yet powerful digital marketing solution. By harnessing the power of SEO for accountants, businesses have the potential to improve web visibility, get more web traffic, increase leads, build brand awareness and much more. This in turn will increase your revenue and lead to faster business growth, making for a better ROI for your accountancy firm.
What is SEO for Accountants?
Before we get technical, let’s define what SEO is for any readers that might be new to it. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving a website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be done by optimising a website’s content, structure, and other off-page factors that search engines use to rank websites.
SEO for accountants is the process of optimising an accounting firm’s website so that it ranks higher in SERPs, specifically for keywords related to accounting services. This will increase visibility and result in more traffic, leads and conversions for your business.
Why is SEO Important for Accounting Firms?
SEO is important for accounting firms because it can help you attract more new clients. When people search for accounting services online, they are more likely to click on the websites that rank higher in the search results. SEO can help accounting firms rank higher in the search results by optimising their websites for relevant keywords.
Here are some of the benefits of SEO for accounting firms:
Increased Website Traffic
Did you know that ranking for the number one spot on Google results in a 31.7% click-through rate? This drops all the way down to 3% if you were to rank in the tenth position on page one, so it’s not difficult to see how important SEO is. Simply put; when your website ranks higher in the search results, you will get more traffic from people who are searching for accounting services. This means that you will have more potential clients to reach.
Improved Brand Awareness
When your website is visible in the search results, it will help to improve your brand awareness. This means that more people will know about your accounting firm and be more likely to consider you when they need accounting services. Building brand awareness and forging a strong relationship with your customers is particularly important to the accountancy industry, as you are performing an important financial service for people and businesses.
In a study carried out by marketing agency Red C, 82% of participants opted for a product from a brand that they were already aware of. This highlights just how important brand awareness is for businesses.
Increased Lead Generation
Website SEO for accountants can help your businesses generate more leads. When people visit your website, they may be interested in learning more about your services or getting a quote. You can capture these leads by ensuring that your site is fully optimised to help customers to convert.
A web conversion in the accountancy industry will most likely be a customer getting in contact with you and asking for a quote, but it may also be signing up to a newsletter or downloading a specific piece of content for example. Whatever your goals are, SEO will turn your businesses into a lead generating machine.
Increased Sales
Above everything else, the most important thing you care about is increasing revenue and landing more clients. Utilising accountant SEO can help you increase your sales by driving more traffic to your website, which in turn generates more leads. When you have more leads, you will have more opportunities to close sales and grow your revenue.
Target the Customers That Matter Most
SEO is a hugely effective marketing strategy when it comes to targeting the right customers. You might be an accountancy firm that specialises in one industry for example, therefore you would only want to focus your efforts on optimising for keywords within this field. Alternatively, the majority of accountancy firms are region specific.
Harnessing local SEO for accountants allows you to filter out irrelevant customers from regions outside of your service areas, meaning you can get your business in front of the web users that matter.
Cost Effective Digital Marketing
SEO is a digital marketing strategy that has the potential to have a huge return on investment. With relatively little spend, businesses have the potential to rank high on SERPs and get in front of a very high number of people. It’s true that it’s a long term tactic, but when done right it has the potential to be more cost-effective than pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media marketing and email marketing.
Determining The Key Focus Areas of SEO for Accountants
SEO for accountants works in the same way as other industries. Actions are split into on-page and off-page elements, both of which serve as essential components of a successful SEO strategy. Let’s look at the actionable steps you can take to improve your website SEO:
On-Page SEO for Accountants
Do Keyword Research
This is the foundation of any SEO campaign – but you may be wondering why keyword research helps accountant SEO? Put simply, you need to identify the keywords that your target audience are using to search for accounting services. Once you know these keywords, you can use them throughout your website content, including your title tags, meta descriptions, and blog posts. This helps users find your website and creates a far more targeted approach.
Use keyword research tools such as SEMrush or AHrefs to conduct your keyword research. These tools will show you essential statistics such as search volume and competitiveness rating, allowing you to make informed choices about the keywords you choose to target.
Generating a comprehensive list of keywords will also inform your entire content strategy. You should create content around the words and phrases that matter most to your business – after all, there’s no point in generating content that serves no purpose to your accountancy company.
Create High-Quality Content
Creating high quality content is at the very heart of successful SEO for accountants. Your website’s content should be informative, engaging, and well-written. According to Google, the algorithm now takes into account an element called E-E-A-T when ranking web content. This stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Essentially, content that performs best in these areas will have a better chance of ranking than content that doesn’t.
Blogging is an effective way of building your website’s authoritativeness and expertise. Creating targeted content that satisfies your users search intent will not only help drive traffic to your site, but it also shows Google that you know what you’re talking about – helping to boost your chances of ranking for your relevant keywords.
Another key consideration to make is the negative impact that duplicate content can have on your website. Never copy and paste anything from other sites as this could lead to your site getting penalised. You should also avoid copying content from other parts of your own website – it should be original and unique to give you the best chance of ranking.
Optimise Your Website for Mobile Devices
Over 55% of all web traffic is now from mobile and this is the case in the accounting industry as well. More and more people are using their smartphones and tablets to search for information online, so make sure your website is optimised for mobile devices so that it looks good and loads quickly on these devices. By not doing so you could be preventing a huge amount of business from finding and using your site.
Focus on User Experience (UX)
In addition to creating high-quality content and optimising your website for search engines, to build successful website SEO for accountants it’s also important to focus on user experience (UX). This means making sure that your website is easy to use and navigate, and that it provides a positive experience for visitors.
There are a number of things you can do to improve the UX of your website, such as:
Use clear and concise navigation – Your website’s navigation should be easy to understand and use, and visitors should be able to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.
Use high-quality images and videos – Images and videos can help to break up text and make your website more visually appealing and engaging.
Use a responsive design – A responsive design means that your website will automatically adjust its layout to fit the screen size of the device it’s being viewed on. This will ensure that your website looks good and functions properly on all devices.
Use clear and concise language – Your website’s content should always be easy to understand. Accountancy can be a complicated industry for individuals without previous knowledge. Use clear and concise language that is free of jargon.
Use a call to action – Tell visitors what you want them to do, such as contact you for more information or sign up for your newsletter.
Off-Page SEO for Accountants
Build Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites to your website and signal to Google that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. You can build backlinks by guest blogging, participating in online forums, and submitting your website to directories.
There will most likely be a lot of accountancy focused directories for you to get backlinks from – just perform a quick Google Search to see what’s available. Guest blogging is another strategy that can see fantastic results if done correctly. There are a whole host of finance blogs and websites that allow for guest blogging opportunities. Not only will this provide an all important backlink, but it provides essential exposure, builds your networks and can result in new leads for your accountancy business.
Use Social Media
Social media can be a great way for accounting firms to promote website content and attract new visitors. Share your content on social media, and encourage your followers to share it as well. This helps to build all important backlinks and can act as a highly effective lead generation tactic if done right.
Track Your Progress
It’s important to track your SEO progress so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. There are a number of SEO tools that can help you track your progress, such as Google Analytics, Ahrefs, or Google Search Console.
Tracking your SEO progress allows you to gain extra information on your clients behaviour, such as what search terms they’re using to find your site, which pages aren’t performing and much more. From this information you are able to tweak your strategy and identify problem areas to bring further success.
By tracking your metrics, you can see which SEO strategies are effective and which ones need to be adjusted. By understanding your traffic and conversions, you can see how much money your SEO efforts are generating for your business, which allows you to determine whether you have a positive or negative ROI.
Loop Digital Offers Effective and Affordable SEO for Accountants
If you’re looking for effective SEO for accountants and accountancy firms, then Loop Digital can help. We offer a full range of specialist SEO solutions that have the potential to take your business to the next level. By utilising our team’s specialist skills and knowledge, we can help to drive traffic to your website, generate more leads and increase your revenue. Our packages offer affordable SEO for accountants to ensure that you achieve a positive return on your investment. Contact a member of the Loop Digital team today to find out how we can work together to improve your website’s SEO, and set you up for long term success.
Mel is our Partner Strategy & Delivery Manager and also a CIM Chartered Marketer, a testament to her commitment to excellence in the field. But Mel’s contributions don’t stop at the office door. Beyond her professional endeavours, she leads an active life as a qualified run leader and dedicated volunteer. Her experience in these roles has streamlined her leadership and teamwork skills, making her an invaluable asset when it comes to collaborating on projects and ensuring their success. Her sharp insights, strategic thinking, and knowledge have made her a backbone in our team’s ability to drive results for clients in this industry. Mel will make sure that we can approach marketing challenges from all angles and deliver outstanding results for our clients.
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